Luggage items, such as soft side suitcases, may include wire or extruded plastic reinforcement beads, honeycomb boards and/or other reinforcing panels as shape retaining structures and anchor plates for components, such as wheels and handles. To form a luggage case incorporating these frame and reinforcement structures, multiple manufacturing steps are usually involved. The wire reinforcements are first formed or bent into a predetermined shape and then received in piping, which is then attached around the perimeter of the structure requiring reinforcement. Other materials are attached to the structure in the same step, such as outer fabric, liner fabric, or the like. Reinforcing panels are held in place within the walls of the luggage case by being positioned in pockets, or separately attached to the wire frame or other panels. Not only does this wire-frame structure involve a multi-step assembly process, it adds unnecessary weight and creates interruptions at the outer panels of the luggage case, thereby restricting the aesthetic design flexibility.
Documents that may be related to the present disclosure in that they include various approaches to luggage construction include GB2339679, U.S. Pat. No. 3,962,010, U.S. Pat. No. 4,433,760, U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,156, U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,744, US2004/0079604, US2006/0249344, US2007/0045071 and CN2380081. These proposals, however, may be improved.
It is therefore desirable to provide an improved luggage construction, in particular an improved luggage frame structure, which addresses the above described problems and/or which more generally offers improvements or an alternative to existing luggage structures and construction methods.